*** As if sanding during Winter weren't bad enough, last summer the VDOT came around and chip-sealed the road near our house. I was DISMAYED .

*** It's been 8 months since they did this and it still SUCKS, but it is what it is and I just ride accordingly.

Doug

Michigan's DOT chip-seals quite a bit, particularly on rural roads - right where I like to ride! Pretty much kills the buzz of using that road for a whole summer. Really sucks if you live on that road. Happened to me - TWICE!

Doug, you might be surprised by what makes up the "chip" matrix in that crap. Run a magnetic garage floor sweeper over it and you will find a surprising amount of shreded metal among the concrete chips. Apparently not all recycling crushers have magnetic separators, so at least some rerod gets chipped, sized and sorted with the rest of the concrete.

Since the metal is maleable the little bits get beaten into round'ish ball bearings instead of grippy jagged-edged concrete chips. Ok, ok, so maybe the ball bearing analogy is a stretch ... I'll just stop here.

OP, you will get used to gravel. Stay alert for it, especially in the spring, following thunderstorms, and at the apex of tight right hand corners (where cars will often drop a wheel onto the shoulder and drag gravel out onto the paved surface).